cesarbs

Keep in mind that popular cars in the US can be luxury cars in Brazil. My Brazilian friends' first reaction when I tell them I have a Honda Civic here is "damn, freaking awesome, you're loaded!"... and then I tell them that's a pretty basic car in America :)

This finally explains why I find medical care in the US so different than what I had in my birth country (Brazil).

My US experience so far (multiple times): go to the doctor and have 15-20 minutes tops to talk to them (and most of that time is taken by a nurse and then waiting), describe symptoms and general observations I've made about them (I listen a lot to my body). With almost no discussion or explanation, I'm quickly diagnosed with something that almost always sounds bogus to me and I'm prescribed some medicine with no explanation of what it does.

Back in Brazil: go to the doctor and have 30-45 minutes booked. No nurse. Explain symptoms. Doctor asks further questions. I answer and offer general observations. Doctor writes down everything. Doctor appears to think about it. Doctor offers a few possible explanations as to what is going on and what is the course of action from then on. Asks what I think about it. If I'm prescribed something, I receive a full explanation of what the medicine does, and if I'm OK with taking it.

Another major difference I've observed is that doctors in the US tend to attempt to treat things starting from the least concerning ailment. I guess that's why there are so many stories of cancer patients going to doctor after doctor who treat them for minor things, only for a cancer diagnostic to be made when the disease has progressed a lot further. Back in Brazil, the doctors I went to would usually go a completely different route: "it's probably <insert minor/treatable problem here>", but let's rule out the sinister stuff first [like cancer]."

I love 99% of my life in America when compared to Brazil, and have no plans to go back. But going to the doctor here is definitely a subpar experience compared to what I had there.

I very much agree with this. Back when I was in high school we had some overlapping topics in Math and Physics. But in the Physics class we'd actually see things applied to the real world (e.g. a quadratic equation representing the trajectory of a cannon ball), and that made the stuff learned in Math a lot more interesting to me.

> Unfortunately, learning how to take care of your own body,

This should be fixed in PE. I only got interested in being active after I was already an adult (and a very sedentary one). For years I hated the thought of doing physical activity because I associated it with PE class and all the bullshit I had to endure (bullying and having no option but to play sports I didn't really like).

Would be nice if we were taught at school about body composition, nutrition, different results you can get from exercise (strength, hypertrophy, endurance, that kind of thing). PE is often instead a bunch of random stuff with no explanation of what results can be expected.

To make it worse I tend to start stuttering when asked things on the spot, even though I know the answers or could easily look up whatever info was asked for. I'm painfully aware this makes me look like I don't know what I'm doing. People generally don't have the patience to let me gather my thoughts and give a coherent explanation/answer.

WTF? What's their rationale?

I also have this funny thing where I can't build endurance. I've been doing push ups on every work out and I can't for the life of me do more than 20. But I have no trouble increasing difficulty (putting hands closer, elevating feet, etc.) or weight (for things with weights like squats).

Also, I though the idea of Lagom was that one should not pursue material wealth and success above what is "good enough".